The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 485 Strategic Discussion

On a cold morning, He Wei arrived on time at the meeting room of the Military Commission's General Staff Headquarters in Peidu City. Although he was confused as to why he was asked to attend the military meeting, he still had to carry out the order.

When He Wei arrived at the meeting on time and sat at the head of the long table in the conference room, he was also shocked by the scene in front of him. In the large conference room, almost all the people he saw were senior military officers above the rank of major general, and there were more than 30 of them. It was simply that generals could be seen everywhere he looked.

As for colonels like He Wei, there were more than sixty of them, and there were more than a hundred colonels and above in the entire meeting.

In such a scene, it can really be said that generals are everywhere and colonels are worse than dogs. If a colonel like He Wei is thrown into this, he is just a sesame seed and mung bean in terms of military rank.

This was the first time for He Wei to attend such a grand and solemn meeting with so many great generals. He was still not quite clear about the content and theme of the meeting.

The Military Commission only notified him to come to the General Staff Headquarters for a meeting but did not tell him what the content of the meeting was. However, he observed carefully and found that many of the officers attending the meeting were familiar faces to him when he was in the General Staff Headquarters studying and formulating anti-airborne combat plans, such as Liu Fei, the director of the First Department of the General Staff Headquarters, and several directors and department heads of the General Staff Headquarters who had previously worked with him.

In addition, the meeting was held in the Military Affairs Department, which was in charge of the formulation of combat plans, so He Wei guessed that today's meeting was most likely related to the combat plan.

"The minister is here, everyone stand up!"

A loud command sounded, the door of the conference room was pushed open, and the Minister of Military Affairs Xu Yongchang strode into the conference room. The officers in the conference room stood up solemnly. Xu Yongchang came to the head of the conference table and waved his hand casually to signal everyone to sit down. Then he went straight to the point and said, "Everyone, since the fall of Wuhan and the Sui-Zao Battle..."

Xu Yongchang's opening speech lasted more than half an hour. Minister Xu first gave a summary and introduced the national war situation and specific combat processes so far this year, which was equivalent to a combat report-style speech.

Thanks to Minister Xu's speech, He Wei, who had been busy training troops recently, just learned about the front-line battle situation across the country in the past year. The first top priority in Minister Xu's speech was the fall of Wuhan at the beginning of this year and the end of the major battle centered on Wuhan. Under the influence of He Wei, the butterfly, the direction of the Wuhan Battle changed greatly.

First of all, the Japanese Hata Detachment and the 6th Division, which had jointly captured Tianjia Town and Banbishan Fortress in the original timeline, were in big trouble this time.

Needless to say, the Hata Detachment suffered heavy losses at the hands of He Wei and was not far from being completely wiped out. The 6th Division, which was attacking Tianjia Town, also made no progress due to the tenacious resistance of Li Yannian's troops of the National Army guarding Tianjia Town. Before the assault corps was about to withdraw from Banbi Mountain on the opposite bank of Tianjia Town, He Wei and Li Yannian's troops joined forces to attack it, and an infantry regiment was wiped out in one go.

After the assault corps withdrew, the intensity of the fighting on the Tianjia Town and Banbi Mountain front did not diminish at all. The 6th Division was extremely unwilling to accept such heavy losses and launched an even more fierce attack on Tianjia Town.

However, the 6th Division's frantic revenge was not limited to continuing to attack Tianjia Town. After the Japanese Hata Detachment, which was attacking the Banbi Mountain Fortress on the opposite bank of Tianjia Town, was defeated by the Assault Corps, the Japanese army was simply unable to transfer additional heavy troops to fill the vacancy left by the Hata Detachment in a short period of time and continued to attack Banbi Mountain.

Therefore, after the Hata Detachment was defeated, Banbi Mountain on the opposite bank of Tianjia Town never had any large-scale battles with the Japanese army again.

However, after the 6th Division suffered a heavy loss, it also bore a grudge against the Chinese defenders near Banbi Mountain. Therefore, while continuing to attack Tianjia Town, the 6th Division also sent a reinforced infantry regiment to cross the Yangtze River one night and launched a retaliatory sneak attack on Banbi Mountain. However, the retaliatory attack of the 6th Division did not gain any good results. Li Yannian's troops guarding near Tianjia Town still fought bravely and firmly guarded the core position of Tianjia Town.

The defenders of Banbi Mountain on the opposite bank of Tianjia Town were no pushovers. When He Wei led the assault corps to withdraw, the troops that took over the defense were the 82nd Division of the Guizhou Army. However, not long after, He Shaozhou's 103rd Division also arrived in Banbi Mountain to take over the defense, and the commander of the garrison was replaced by He Shaozhou, the commander of the 103rd Division, who was in charge of the unified command of the garrison. The 103rd Division was a centralized Guizhou Army unit, and He Shaozhou was a native of Guizhou. Therefore, after he took over as the commander of the Banbi Mountain garrison, the 82nd Division, which made He Wei very worried and did not listen to the central army's orders, had no choice but to obey orders obediently.

He Shaozhou was also a battle-hardened officer with great command ability, not a straw bag who relied entirely on Minister He to climb up the ladder. After he took over the defense of the Assault Corps, he had been prepared for the Japanese army's crossing of the river attack. As early as when the Assault Corps was stationed, the Assault Corps had built a large number of solid fortifications along the river bank. These fortifications were all handed over to the 82nd Division after the Assault Corps withdrew. After the 103rd Division arrived, these fortifications carefully constructed by the Assault Corps were also handed over to the 103rd Division, which had stronger combat effectiveness.

Therefore, the 6th Division's surprise attack across the river did not gain any advantage at all. The 6th Division troops that launched the attack at night were attacked halfway across the river by the 103rd Division troops in the positions along the river before they had completely crossed the river. The artillery on Banbi Mountain and the naval torpedo troops also provided assistance. After a night of fierce fighting, although the 6th Division successfully crossed the river with its strong combat effectiveness and fighting spirit, it also suffered heavy casualties under the joint attack of the defenders' infantry, machine guns, artillery and torpedo fire.

After launching the river crossing attack, the 6th Division began to fight on two fronts, launching fierce attacks on Tianjia Town and Banbi Mountain at the same time.

In the direction of Tianjiazhen, Li Yannian's 103th Division, 82th Division and fortress artillery units relied on the Tianjiazhen Fortress to fight desperately. In the direction of Banbishan, He Shaozhou commanded the 193rd Division, 385nd Division and the th Brigade of the rd Division to fight fiercely with the Japanese army.

The 6th Division of the Japanese Army fought desperately, using coordinated infantry, artillery and air force attacks for several days. The defending troops also fought desperately. In order to defend Tianjia Town and Banbi Mountain, the last gateway to Wuhan along the Yangtze River, the National Government continued to send troops to the area and added a brigade of troops to Tianjia Town and Banbi Mountain respectively.

Relying on their relatively superior military strength and tenacious fighting will, the defenders of Tianjia Town and Banbi Mountain managed to withstand the fierce attack of the Japanese 6th Division. The Yangxin victory commanded by He Wei also became the best example for commanders at all levels of the defenders to encourage their officers and soldiers and boost the morale of the troops. Inspired by the Yangxin victory, officers and soldiers at all levels were in high spirits, and they fought one after another to defend their positions and put up a tenacious resistance.

In addition, the Yangxin victory also provided the defenders with many tactical references. During the offensive and defensive tug-of-war between the two sides, He Shaozhou even referred to the combat experience of He Wei's command of the assault corps to defend Banbi Mountain, and launched several counterattacks against the Japanese army, all of which achieved good results.

Although they did not achieve as brilliant results as the Assault Corps, they learned from others' example. In addition, He Wei helped train the grassroots sergeants of the 103rd Division, He Shaozhou's core force, so they also wiped out several small units of the 6th Division in several counterattacks, which was quite a success.

The fight between the two sides was extremely brutal. The Tianjiazhen Fortress and the Banbishan Fortress on the opposite bank almost became a meat grinder that devoured the manpower of both sides. After the National Army increased its troops, the Japanese army saw that the 6th Division's attack on Tianjiazhen and Banbishan had no progress, so it had to increase its troops, and took the risk of squeezing out troops from the reinforcements of the 106th Division that was besieged on the Wanjialing line to reinforce the 6th Division.

It was not until more than two months of fighting that the Kuomintang government, for overall strategic considerations, ordered the withdrawal from Tianjia Town and Banbishan Fortress. During the entire battle, the Kuomintang positions in both Tianjia Town Fortress and Banbishan Fortress were as solid as a rock and were not shaken at all.

During the two months of tug-of-war, the participating national army units paid a heavy price. The average remaining strength of each participating division was less than 6 people. Although the overall losses of the 6th Division were less than those of the Chinese army, the casualties were not small. In addition, the 6th Division was seriously injured because it had been eaten up by the assault corps and the th Division of Li Yannian's army. The th Division, known as the top elite ace of the Japanese Army, was completely beaten and suffered a heavy blow this time, and directly lost its ability to continue fighting.

Secondly, there were also great changes in other directions of the Battle of Wuhan. The National Army's siege of the Japanese 106th Division on the Wanjialing line also achieved more brilliant results. In the original Wanjialing encirclement and annihilation battle, although the National Army had invested a heavy force and was ready to wipe out the entire 106th Division surrounded in Wanjialing, it ultimately backfired and only achieved the goal of severely damaging the 106th Division, but failed to wipe out the entire division.

But after He Wei's actions, the Japanese army had to withdraw the troops originally intended to rescue the 106th Division to support the 6th Division that was attacking Tianjia Town and Banbi Mountain. As a result, the Japanese troops that rescued the 106th Division were naturally greatly reduced. Under this chain reaction, the 106th Division was in big trouble.

Although the division was eventually saved from annihilation by the desperate rescue of other reinforcements, it still suffered more than 106 casualties under the siege of several Nationalist armies. The colonel chief of staff and a colonel regiment commander of the th Division were also killed by the Nationalist Army during the siege, and the division commander Junrokuro Matsuura was also seriously injured. The entire division suffered more than half of its casualties and lost its combat effectiveness.

Although the 106th Division was not completely wiped out by the National Army, it was severely damaged. Following He Wei's victory in Yangxin, the Battle of Wanjialing became the second major victory achieved by the National Army during the Battle of Wuhan. It was dubbed the Victory of Wanjialing and was widely publicized across the country, greatly boosting the determination of the military and civilians across the country to fight against the Japanese.

Due to the chain reaction caused by He Wei, the Japanese army's overall combat plan for attacking Wuhan was disrupted. The heavy losses forced the Japanese army to slow down the strategic process of conquering Wuhan. It also gave the National Government more time to transfer strategic materials, industry and adjust troop deployment. Coupled with the tenacious and continuous resistance of the National Army, the Japanese troops paid a heavy price and did not complete the three-sided encirclement of Wuhan from the east, south and north until the end of January 1939.

The Nationalist government safely completed its retreat before the Japanese encirclement closed, preserving a large number of its manpower. When the Japanese occupied Wuhan in February, all they got was an empty city with no soldiers, no weapons, no military resources, and no strategic materials.

After learning from Minister Xu that the Battle of Wuhan had become completely different because of him, He Wei felt very relieved. Considering the huge disparity in military power between China and Japan, no matter how much he tried, he could not turn the tables and bring about any changes that were too outrageous.

The result of delaying the Japanese army's original strategic plan to capture Wuhan and sending countless Japanese troops to see Amaterasu was enough to satisfy He Wei. He Wei didn't listen too seriously to what Minister Xu said about the process and trends of the Sui-Zao Campaign, the Nanchang Campaign and the various battles that led to the fall of Guangzhou last year.

It was not until Minister Xu finished his speech and reviewed the combat experiences over the past year that He Wei came to his senses and began to listen again to Minister Xu's subsequent speech.

Minister Xu's review and recap of the operations in the previous year were full of positivity and optimism, both in his wording and tone, so the atmosphere in the meeting room was also relatively positive.

After reviewing the war over the past year, Minister Xu took a sip of tea, glanced at everyone in the conference room, and then said, "Everyone, for our army, the previous battles have all been remarkable, but what is more important is the next battle. According to intelligence from all over the front line, the Japanese army seems to have launched an attack in northern Hunan and intends to take Changsha. At the beginning of the year, after the Japanese army captured Wuhan, they sent a powerful force to capture Yueyang, the northern gateway of Hunan. Obviously, the enemy's next strategic intention is to capture Changsha. Changsha is a hub that goes south directly to Guangdong and Guangxi, and goes west to Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou. Its strategic position is very important. Our army has also begun to gather heavy troops in northern Hunan to prepare to fight the Japanese army. What do you think about the next strategic deployment and combat tactics? Feel free to speak freely."

"The battle plan for the Xiangbei campaign and the defense of Changsha formulated by our military headquarters has been completed. According to the intelligence we have obtained, the Japanese army has currently assembled at least three divisions. Our various units are also being deployed according to the predetermined plan. However, the situation of the army is unpredictable, and the shape of the water is unpredictable. The established battle plan must be implemented, but necessary modifications and improvements are also certain. The Xiangbei battle is imminent, and our military headquarters must also assist the Military Commission in improving the strategy to deal with the enemy. Our meeting this time is to improve various plans and battle plans as much as possible before the Xiangbei battle. You are all middle and senior cadres from various departments of the Military Commission. If you have any opinions, please feel free to speak up!"

Minister Xu waved his hand and handed the right to speak to the participating officers in the huge conference room.

When He Wei heard what Minister Xu said, he thought that his guess was correct. Today's large-scale meeting was indeed related to the combat plan. This was definitely a discussion meeting on the combat plan to deal with the Japanese army's massive attack on Hunan.

However, this combat plan led by the General Staff Department under the Military Commission was not an ordinary tactical-level combat plan, but a strategic-level plan, belonging to a high-end bureau. This was indeed the first time he had attended such a high-level combat meeting.

As for why he, the chief officer and commander of the field army, was brought here, He Wei knew it very well. He, He, had won a great victory and had become even more prosperous with the recent military exercises. He had made a name for himself here with Minister Xu and even received a commendation from the chairman. It was a time when the market was booming, so it was natural for Minister Xu to invite him to attend the meeting.

Soon, led by a major general, several people stood up and expressed their opinions. They spoke eloquently about the strategic plans of how to defend against the Japanese army in northern Hunan with Changsha as the center and how to fight back. However, He Wei felt that what these officers who first expressed their opinions said was basically no different from nonsense. They were all empty and boastful strategies, and their substantive effects were basically zero.

I am afraid that except for He Wei, the rest of the officers attending the meeting are basically rear-line officers who have been sitting in offices for a long time. Boasting and lack of practical experience are the common problems of these officers.

Minister Xu did listen to these flashy opinions one by one, and responded to the officers who expressed their opinions with words such as "not without reason", "worth considering", and "very reasonable". As for whether they were really reasonable and worth considering, it could be seen from Minister Xu's increasingly frowned brows.

He Wei remained silent. He had gained a lot of experience in the army and was already a mid-level officer after all. He knew that the higher the position, the more he should know how to keep silent. Moreover, he had no objection to the strategic plan of the upcoming Battle of Xiangbei, which was also the first Battle of Changsha.

First, he did not understand the specific strategic plan of the Changsha Campaign. Second, as a time traveler, he vaguely remembered that among the several Changsha Campaigns in history, only the fourth one was a complete failure. There should have been no major problems in the overall strategic deployment of the first three Changsha Campaigns, otherwise the Japanese army would not have suffered repeated defeats.

What really needed to be solved were more specific tactical issues, but overly detailed tactical issues were simply not within the scope of discussion of the strategic meeting he was in, so He Wei wisely chose to keep his mouth shut.

However, just as He Wei was sitting upright and not saying a word, He Wei suddenly felt a gaze cast at him. Then, Xu Yongchang's frown suddenly opened, and he looked at He Wei, who was sitting like a wooden man, and suddenly said loudly: "He Wei, you tell me something!"

He Wei was startled at first. He never expected Xu Yongchang to call on him to express his opinion. However, he quickly regained his composure, stood up and shouted, "Yes!"

The echo of He Wei's loud shout immediately reverberated in the large conference room, attracting the attention of many officers present.

After another half-minute of silence, He Wei continued, "Minister, I think our military's strategic plan does need to be adjusted, but it's not in Hunan, but in Guangxi!"

(End of this chapter)